UNICEF nutrition specialist Joseph Senesie screens children for malnutrition in Adikeh, in the Wajirat district of the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia on July 19. (Christine Nesbitt/AP)
Mawi Asgedom is the author of “Of Beetles and Angels: A Boy’s Remarkable Journey from a Refugee Camp to Harvard.”
Over the past 11 months, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government has killed, raped and tortured ethnic-minority Tigrayans en masse. Will the Biden administration label these acts a genocide and impose appropriate consequences? If not, the United States will effectively greenlight genocide for any leader ruthless enough to follow Abiy’s playbook of secrecy, sexual violence and starvation as weapons of war.
The case against Abiy’s administration is straightforward: His government’s actions, as described by countless international monitors, fit the United Nations’ definition of genocide. Read more…